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Wednesday, June 10, 2015

Cultural Offsprings: Yuppies, Millenials and Hipsters Are Out, Yuccies Are In

Wazzup Pilipinas!Taking excerpts from a very interesting article that offers a new term to encapsulate the idea of a new breed of "creative class" within our society - the ones living near the intersection of creativity and financial prosperity:

"The Young Urban Creatives or yuccies are the cultural offspings of what we previously know as Young Urban Professionals (yuppies) and hipsters. They are intent on being successful like yuppies and creative like hipsters. They are among the privileged members of a so-called “creative class.”

Yuccies are determined to define themselves not by wealth (or the rejection of it), but by the relationship between wealth and their own creativity. In other words, they want to get paid for their own ideas, rather than executing on someone else’s.

In a nutshell, the yuccie is a slice of Generation Y, borne of suburban comfort, indoctrinated with the transcendent power of education, and infected by the conviction that not only do we deserve to pursue our dreams; we should profit from them."

Why do people need to label and pigeonhole everything and everyone? It only serves to alienate everybody from everybody else.

Do we really need a label for everything? Do we need to feel so indoctrinated that badly that we feel the need to create a name for every pseudo generational trend that pops up? Why can't we just be 'humans' pursuing a happy and fulfilling life, it doesn't need to be more complicated than that. This type of habit is what creates the "us vs them" mindset. Who cares? At the end of the line, there's really only one question that needs to be asked; are we satisfied with how we lived your life?

Can't we just do whatever we want because we want to do it, instead of proclaiming it to the world? Otherwise we're not really living a life -- we're performing a role.

Yuccies deserve to make a living being yourself? In this world, absolutely nobody DESERVES anything. This is the kind of entitlement that is ruining our society. Success isn't earned, it is leased; and rent is due every day...

I'm proud to say I am the exact opposite of all points presented to describe this class of entitled, elitist, burgoise caste of clowns who think the world owes them something.

The privilege in this article just leaped out of the screen and curated itself an entitlement sandwich on White bread. A better term is: Fresh Urban Creative, or 'FUCCIE.' How is the author not just a mainstream millennial?

The stereotyped millennial is a whiny narcissist who needs to be told every five seconds that they are a special little snowflake, and who feels entitled to a life and career that they have not earned. How is this not him?

Writing a navel-gazing treatise on how their privileged specialness deserves its own special new category is exactly the kind of thing a stereotypical millennial would do. Going on and on about being a "creative" without any evidence of actual creativity to show is exactly the kind of thing a stereotypical millennial would do. Posting an argument-devoid editorial on Mashable about the details of his special, precious little life in Brooklyn, wherein the particulars of his mustache are explored but his central claim gets no such scrutiny, is exactly the kind of attention-seeking narcissism that Northeastern editorial writers have been describing for the last 5+ years, all under the title "millennial".

The author is not special. He already has a category. He's a standard-issue stereotype - a basic, bro.

Although I agree with many of the points in this article, I would maybe say we've always had "Yappies" (Young Ambitious People).

Every generation of 20 somethings likes to believe they are unique in their pursuits. It's not until later we realize that these types of people - hipster, creative class, whatever - have always existed. It's just more mainstream today.

To be honest no difference from generation to generation. It is the same everyone just adds a new name and a twist only because technology has changed. Bottom line is all generations think they are better, their talents are wasted - they dream big, some will make it, others will travel a traditional path, but in the end most will succumb to the realty that you have responsibilities and bills need to be paid and mouths to be fed. We wake up from our dream but not all give up - story is the same no matter what you call it.

The article stated: " infected by the conviction that not only do we deserve to pursue our dreams; we should profit from them." - Why is that such a bad thing? Shouldn't that be the dream for everyone? Shouldn't more minorities be applying these same principles in thier own communities & businesses?

The reason there are so many parallels between yuppies, hipsters, and so many incarnations before them, is that we're only finding new ways to describe the same types of young people. The differences between generations are only a reflection of a change in the world we live in.

Conversely, perhaps the term hipster will eventually lose its meaning within our generation, but that wouldn't mean there'll be any shortage of "Youth counter-culture". It will just take a slightly different form.

Yuccies are then more like a neurotic elitist bunch of rich kids, desperately seeking reassurance that they are somehow more enlightened and creative than those around them. With the common denominator of rich parents and predominately white middle class backgrounds. They cling desperately to rigid stereotypes to justify some self-perceived creative potential. The whole movement stinks of social bigotry from both class and racial perspectives. Enjoying their self-reflective toxic neurosis while all looking very much like clones - how about the title 'Self-Entitled Consumerist Muppet.'

I'd like to note that the rise of the so called Yuccies is not entirely a self-inflicted millenial creation. I believe many of us felt the full shock the recession had on society. For those graduating at the onset of the economic decline it was rather fear-inducing; to be breaking out in to the 'real world' when everything was kind of caving. Many of the suburban raised, liberal arts educated people such as myself may have been inclined to pursue a more traditional career path, after having spent the college years dutifully trying create what was told to be "the greatest years of your life", only to discover the door leading to many career paths wide open after graduating in 2007 and prior, was now only very slightly ajar if not entirely closed.

Hobbies morphed in to passions simple because more time was on our hands. The influx of baristas came about due to the vanishing act of many entry level jobs across the professional board. It was an odd sensation for myself and maybe others: not having initially been able to get the traditional job, made me feel less traditional, think less traditionally, and believe I was not a part of some tradition. My dreams were encouraged solely by the lack of "reality" I was given. Maybe a desire to be paid for "being ourselves" and thinking creatively, was because for so many years, as the economy has very very slowly turned itself around, the millenials had only to think creative, while the hustle and bustle of 9-5 job was less attainable.

The real question should not be if it's right or if Yuccies are indeed 'yucky', but instead, how do we make the the mindset and skills of the Yuccies economically feasible and beneficial, cause I have a feeling many of them (us) will be waving their (our) middle-fingers to past generations who may have had it easier as a young adult until the culture of employment and careers evolves. Yuccies have simply declared that they would rather work for themselves than as an unpaid, freelance intern.

Yucceism is the penultimate stage of true culture rot. It implies that the imperative to consume has become all-encompassing. That the need to have both creative freedom and have that be lucrative further enslaves us to the brands we're told we must adhere to; even the brand that we've created and called ourselves. After this is a revolution in the idea of what it means to be human, or a flight headlong into pure hedonism. The wealth gap will become wider and wider as the privilege to consume becomes further fetishized, and then we will drown.

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